What is below was written by one of Elizabeth Ann's granddaughters. It was written in 1999 after the granddaughter interviewed Elizabeth Ann about the Great Depression:

My grandmother lived in many different places. She was born in 1921 and survived the Great Depression. Before the Depression, her family were sharecroppers in Illinois. They had a dog, four children, and a black model T Ford. Once the Depression hit, the family was forced to move all around the Midwest in search of work where her dad would usually get paid only a dollar a day. Much of that work was farm work because her father was skilled in the use of most farm equipment.

Her family was poor before the Depression and had no money in the banks, so they did not lose money as the banks failed. Still, the Depression hit the family hard. Her family would sew their own clothing, grow much of their own food, or shoot rabbits and squirrels. On the holidays they would celebrate by picnicking, or going to a family member's work place where a company party was being held. For Halloween once, they even got clothing in place of candy from some houses. They were given clothing because she and her brother looked so poor that people felt sorry for them.

Their family's home had the barest furnishings because they moved around so much. They did not even have any books. Because there was no public library near her, most of the time her entertainment came from school, from herself, or from the family radio. Before the family had a radio for inside the house, they would listen to the radio on the car. For certain radio programs the entire family would crowd around the family car to try to listen to the radio. She lived in many different kinds of homes during the Depression, ranging from tiny little shacks to a 17-room three-floor mansion with hardwood floors. They lived in such different places because her father's jobs varied so much and their housing usually came as part of her father's pay; the farmer would let the family live in an empty house on his property. Renting the mansion cost her family only four dollars a month. Because people had no money, everything was cheap. Eight gallons of gasoline cost only a dollar, and a visit to the doctor cost about fifty cents.

There was a huge shortage of jobs. During that time, because most people did not have telephones, finding information about jobs was hard. Her father mostly learned about jobs by word of mouth. It was harder for her father to find any work during the winter because there was no farm work then. Sometimes the family members would do odd jobs to pay the rent, and they would live off what they had canned during the growing season.

For fun, her family would have a picnic or do other outdoor activity. They couldn't afford paying to have fun. Once her family took her to see a movie, and she got terribly sick. She said that she got sick because she had never before seen a moving picture, and all the movement made her sick. She went out into the parking lot and threw up.

Because she moved around so much, she did not graduate from high school until she was 21. In one year, she moved five different times, and she went to five different schools. Once, she spent only two weeks at a school before moving again. She never had any close friends during school because her family moved so much. She flunked the first grade because she had a horrible case of the chicken pox. The pox spots were so bad that there was not a spot on her that was not affected. Even her finger tips had sores on them. She was out of school for three months because of the chicken pox.

What she remembered most about the Great Depression was having to do without, and having to make do with whatever you had, even if it was nothing.

High school:Graduated from Rossville High School, Rossville, Vermilion County, Illinois, in 1941.

First husband:William E. SMITH. Married on 16-May-1942 in St. Joseph County, Indiana. Two children from first marriage (two daughters). Marriage ended in divorce on 11-Apr-1947, in St. Joseph Co., Indiana.

Second husband:Miles Griffith BEARD. Married on 19-Nov-1949 in St. Joseph Co., Indiana. Four children from second marriage (a daughter and three sons), plus one stillborn twin.

Grandchildren:* Four grandchildren from 1st marriage. * Seven grandchildren from 2nd marriage. (The oldest of the seven grandchildren from her 2nd marriage was a grandson born in 1975. His existence was hidden from most, but Elizabeth Ann knew about him from the time he was about two days old. She never saw that grandson.)

Great-grandchildren:Two great-grandsons from her 2nd marriage (sons of the grandson whom she never saw).